Affidavit: Man threatened to shoot cops; drugs found in home in Fairview shooting

By Sarah Matott

The Daily Record

Posted:
06/10/2016 04:45:00 PM MDT

The Cañon City Police Department responded to a house early Tuesday morning after a call that shots were fired. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

The Cañon City Police Department responded to a house early Tuesday morning after a call that shots were fired. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

The man tased and arrested Tuesday at 508 Fairview Ave. had threatened dispatch that he would shoot officers if they entered his house, according to the arrest affidavit.

Galen Larson, 30, was tased after the Cañon City Police Department responded at 4:55 a.m. to the residence on Fairview Avenue after neighbors heard the sound of gunfire.

Larson is being charged with possession of a controlled substance on two counts (one as a felony and one as a misdemeanor), possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to leave property upon request of a peace officer, child abuse, reckless endangerment, prohibited use of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence.

Jessica Fisher, 32, the female who was in the residence and walked out of the home during the incident also has been arrested.

Fisher is being charged with possession of a controlled substance on two counts (one as a felony and one as a misdemeanor), possession of drug paraphernalia, reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence.

According to the arrest affidavit, a search warrant was signed to compel Larson and Fisher to give urine samples, as methamphetamine and heroine were both found in their residence.

Both refused to produce a sample; however, Fisher provided a urine sample to Rocky Mountain Behavior Health and tested positive for methamphetamine and opiates.

The affidavit does not state if Larson ever tested positive for drugs or not.

At the scene of the incident, officers observed Larson and Fisher, and three small children barricaded inside of the home.

Advertisement

The Daily Record reached out to the Department of Human Services in Cañon City on Friday but were unable to reach someone to give an update on the three children. The children were medically evaluated on the scene.

Their names are being kept private, but two are males and one female and all are younger than 6 years old.

According to the affidavit, Officer Janel Langdon-Issac of the CCPD, a member of the Cañon City Crisis Negotiation Unit Team, attempted to negotiate with Larson through the front window.

It was then that Issac overheard Larson speaking on the phone with dispatch, where he said, "I will [expletive] shoot these cops if they come in my house."

Issac continued to try and calm Larson down and then got the attention of Fisher, who was later convinced to come outside of the house.

Fisher contacted the Daily Record on Tuesday and said Larson had shot off a pellet gun into the attic because they had heard someone in their attic twice.

"We've heard someone in the attic about three or four days ago and then again late Monday night," Fisher said.

Fisher also said that they've called the police before about someone being in their attic, but that officers never specifically searched the attic at the time.

She said they also have come home to their locked door being wide open.

However, the affidavit stated that while Issac was speaking with Fisher and Larson through the window Larson said that he doesn't trust cops after they were in his home a few days prior.

"I probed Larson as to what he meant, Larson stated he has people breaking into his attic and his neighbor has been hacking into their cell phones to listen to their conversations," the affidavit said.

Larson continued to say, in the affidavit, that officers came to his house but left without taking the person in the attic.

Larsen, according to the release, still refused to exit the home, which then prompted the CCPD to use a Taser on Larsen to gain entry into the home.

Cañon City Police Chief Paul Schultz said that the Crisis Negotiation Unit Team includes 10 officers, and they've trained in this tactic to avoid using excessive force in this types of situations.

He said using this training, it allowed CCPD to talk Fisher outside of the home without excessive force.

"Because of the three children being inside, though, an officer had an opportunity to use a Taser on Larson and end the situation quickly," Schultz said.

He said they could have continued to try and talk Larson outside of the home, but that it could have taken hours. With the three children involved, CCPD acted quickly and tased Larson when the opportunity presented itself.

Larson and Fisher are both being held at the Fremont County Jail with a $25,000 bond.

Larson will appear in court at 10 a.m. June 22 and Fisher will appear at 8:30 a.m. June 22.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.